Went for a hike in Genoa, NV, with an artist friend of mine.

[msbellows@c.im]

@Tamami @sunumbral Google photos says those are dogs, actually.

[terryday@mastodon.social]

@Tamami That would be an awesome painting. The reflection in the water is nice .

[ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org]

@msbellows @Tamami @sunumbral

"Whoppie ti yi yo, whoppe ti yi yo, git along little dogies!"

[msbellows@c.im]

@ai6yr @Tamami @sunumbral Exactly. It just forgot an "i." (Though in the region where I took that photo, orphan/rejected calves are called "leppies," not "dogies.")

[curiousmagpie@beige.party]

@msbellows @Tamami @sunumbral Moof! moof!

[johnjburnsiii@kzoo.to]

@msbellows @Tamami @sunumbral

I see "one" dog - under the "D"...
So - not a full hallucination.

[pussreboots@sfba.social]

@Tamami paint the cows

[msbellows@c.im]

@CuriousMagpie @Tamami @sunumbral Ha! Perfect!

[tamami@mastodon.art]

@msbellows @sunumbral OH! My bad. Of course they are.

[tamami@mastodon.art]

@pussreboots Okay! I'll try!

[sunumbral@beige.party]

@Tamami wooof wooof

[sunumbral@beige.party]

@msbellows @ai6yr @Tamami why leppies? Why dogies, come to think of it....

[pussreboots@sfba.social]

@Tamami here are some cows I painted ten years ago.

[tamami@mastodon.art]

@pussreboots Love it. The perspective is great.

[pussreboots@sfba.social]

@Tamami thank you.

[msbellows@c.im]

@sunumbral @ai6yr @Tamami Don't know about dogies. "Leppies" is from "lepers" – the cow sometimes rejects its calf (especially if it's the second of twins), and then that calf is shunned by all the cows (who reserve their milk for their own) unless the rancher uses a trick to get another cow who lost her calf to adopt it (like skinning the dead calf and draping the hide over the leppie so it smells right).

There, more than you ever wanted to know!

[sunumbral@beige.party]

@msbellows oh, wow

[msbellows@c.im]

@sunumbral @ai6yr @Tamami A friend has a fifth generation ranch in Drewsey, Oregon, on the far far northern edge of the Great Basin. I've helped him move and brand cattle and he's taught me a lot about a fascinating culture that found a good system for sustainably growing food and basically hasn't changed since because it hasn't needed to. (During the branding shown below, I asked his 80+ y.o. dad what had changed from when he was a kid growing up across the road from his current ranch. He scanned slowly across the rail-fence corral, the irons heating on coals, his neighbors on horseback gathered to rope and drag and castrate and brand the calves, the calves bawling not from pain but because they've been temporarily separated from their mamas, the mamas snorting and milling and occasionally charging the humans to get their calves back (which they do anyway after about one minute) – he looked carefully at all that, pointed at some long cattle-haulers parked nearby, and said gravely, "we didn't have them kind trucks back in those days.")

[pussreboots@sfba.social]

@Tamami I was painting by the seat of my pants with that one. And my youngest daughter kept offering advice. She was ten at the time. She even mixed some of the grays I used on the cow and clouds. Collaborative piece.

[magnusidode@mastodon.social]

@Tamami
Cows are very humble to the end of their death.